Thursday, December 9, 2010

Tabletop Vignettes

Way back when we were househunting, one of the criteria that needed to be met was a home with an actual foyer.  I refused to look at homes where the front door just dumps you into the living room.  Unfortunately homes in our price range, including this one that we bought, had really tiny foyers.  Our foyer is so small that there is no room for a table, not even a really small one.

One of my first projects in this house was building a little floating shelf to serve as a foyer table - that spot in your home where you can dump your keys when you walk in and hang a mirror over it to check to make sure you don't have chocolate on your face when you answer the door(oh, is that just me?)  Well if you caught my Christmas Tablescape post here, then you know I grabbed the foyer mirror off the wall to place under my candles centerpiece.

I replaced that mirror with a days until sign.
Unfortunately the sign was nowhere near as large as the mirror it was swapped for.  That meant I needed a bit more height in my foyer shelf Christmas vignette.  I grabbed a footed trifle bowl and flipped it upside down to raise up the little North Pole snowman house given to me by my SIL one year.  I couldn't leave the upturned trifle bowl empty, so I popped a few mirrored silver balls underneath it for a little sparkle and shine.  I have about a million of these from a Gap store display.  In front of the dish, I placed this tube sock snowman craft that Whirling Dervish made way back in first grade.  Technically speaking, we have 2 of these.  Since I'm always room mom, I led the class in the craft.
  I tucked this great little pottery candy dish behind the tube sock snowman to hold our keys.  One of our good friends made this in her basement kiln.  How pretty is the glazing?  Oh, those are Computer Genius's keys.  I don't need a bottle opener on my keychain.(Just a flat surface will do, I have bar skills. HeeHee.)
And here's the entire vignette from a step away in the great room.
Speaking of the great room, want to see another little tabletop vignette?  Of course you do.  This is my little corner table all decked out for Christmas.  The table topper is just a rectangular dinner tablecloth, doubled up, and tossed over the existing round tablecloth.
 WD gave me the large music box at the base of the mirrored boxes.  The tree, fire, and lamps light up and the dancers twirl around.  I love pulling this out each Christmas.
My Father Christmas teddy bear and a bowl of some more of those Gap display mirrored silver balls sit atop of the mirrored boxes.
Speaking of store displays, did you know that most stores toss out their holiday displays?  Since the next year will be a new theme, there's no reason for them to keep them.  This is how I ended up with both the balls and the mirrored boxes from The Gap.  If you see a store display(not Barney's obviously) that tickles your fancy, it doesn't hurt to ask if you can have some or all of it when they're ready to toss it. 
Thanks for popping in.  I'm sharing today's post at Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday, A Stroll Through Life's Christmas Cloche Party, and The Thrifty Home's Penny Pinching Party.


8 comments:

  1. Oh so pretty. I love all of it, so creative and so lovely. Your cloche is so creative, what a fabulous idea. Thanks so much for linking to the party. Hugs, Marty

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a cute and creative cloche. Well done. ♥O

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cute cute cute!
    Be a sweetie,
    shelia ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Counting days till Christmas? CUTE....

    HAPPY PARTY TIME,
    /chie

    ReplyDelete
  5. In order for me to ask for the Christmas display, I'm going to have to actually go to a mall during the holidays....I don't know. It's a really good tip, though. I'll try it out next year when they first put up the decorations...just before Halloween! LOL. Your entry piece is very well done, and you've achieved great balance with your vignette. Thank you for sharing your charming designs. Cherry Kay

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your display is charming and your cloche idea is so creative! I'm short on space, too, and was happy to see what you've done! Annie

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love your "He Knows If You've Been Bad or Good" hanger! That's the cutest thing! Happy Holiday Crafting!

    ReplyDelete

Finding your comments in my mailbox makes me all tingly inside, so thanks for commenting!